First of Two

This weekend I ended up having two cake orders.  I thought it would be pretty easy since one of them was just a sheet cake but it ended up that the sheet cake took more time than I had imagined.

This was my first time just doing a traditional "sheet" cake.  Boy did I learn a lot about sheet cakes.  First off when ordering a sheet cake you need to know if they want a traditional sheet cake which is a 1 layer rectangular cake or a layered cake.  My first thought was it would be a single layer.  When the cake came out of the oven it probably was only about 1 1/2 inches high which I thought would be way too short for a single-layer sheet cake.  So I made another layer to go on top.  After doing some more research I found out that now I had a cake to feed 45 people instead of the 20-25 people that was requested.  Oops.  (But who doesn't love more cake.) The cake was also very high for a traditional sheet cake you would get in a store. 

The next thing that happened was when I had the cake all done I noticed some imperfections which I am sure no one else would have noticed but it bothered me so I tried fixing them.  I ended up messing up a corner so bad I had to re-ice that corner the day I was to deliver it. 

So the cake was ready to go or at least I had to go deliver the 2 cakes I had done.  I packaged up the cake in a cake box which I don't normally do but I thought since it was a sheet cake and there weren't any other tall decorations on top I would just go ahead and supply the box.  I placed it on my back seat which has a very little incline in it but I didn't think this large of a cake would move.  Well I didn't get out of my neighbor when I heard a sliding noise coming from the back seat.  Sure enough, I opened the box and it had slid forward and smashed up against the side.  I had to race home (now late to deliver the other cake) and get some tools to fix it.  I then moved it to the floor board where I thought it would have less chances of it sliding.  Luckily it didn't slide again and I was able to fix it after I delivered the other cake.  What I usually do is place the cake on a board that is exactly the same size as the cake and then later move the cake and the cake board to a bigger board.  This just gives your final presentation a better look.  What they usually tell you is to put icing down as a glue to hold the cake to the board and so I used the same concept for a board and a board.  Well the icing isn't that strong of a "glue" to hold 2 boards together without sliding. Now I am going to find a better way to secure the 2 boards together so it won't be prone to slide.

All this to say a simple sheet cake turned into a lot of little learning experiences. 

Here is a picture of what the top looked like.

It was a french vanilla flavored cake iced in buttercream and decorated with MMF (marshmallow fondant).